Democrats and advocates say the only limits to partisan redistricting will be laws that bar racial discrimination -- and citizen outrage. But the Texas GOP chairman applauds the court ruling.

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision not to police whether political districts are drawn for partisan gain sets the stage for a renewed brawl in the Texas Legislature over map drawing next session.

The court's decision could embolden political line drawing for partisan gain when state legislatures undertake the next round of redistricting after the 2020 census. That's especially true in Texas and other states where one party dominates.

Voting rights advocates and Texas Democrats hoped the Supreme Court would limit partisan "gerrymandering," to force the Legislature to draw more congressional and state legislative districts in which minorities can affect the outcome.

A favorable ruling in the partisan gerrymandering cases out of Maryland and North Carolina, they hoped, also might have induced Texas GOP leaders to resist the temptation to splinter Democratic strongholds, such as Austin, into many districts.

But in a 5-4 ruling Thursday, the justices said claims of partisan gerrymandering do not belong in federal court. The court's conservative, Republican-appointed majority said voters and elected officials should be the arbiters of what is a political dispute.

U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, said in a fundraising email blast that the ruling "opens the floodgates for state legislatures to continue pick their voters instead of their voters choosing who represents them."

He added, "In a state like Texas, we know how far back gerrymandered maps can set us."

But Texas Republican Chairman James Dickey applauded the ruling, saying the justices applied common sense and simply acknowledged reality.

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"Redistricting, no matter how it's done, absolutely is a political process and so it rightfully should be controlled by those most accountable to the voters, which includes the people's elected representatives," he said.

GOP control at the state Capitol since 2003 has produced "Texas exceptionalism," a strong economy that has included minority business startups and low unemployment, Dickey said.

Texas GOP Chairman James Dickey applauds the Supreme Court's decision to steer clear of refereeing political maps drawn for partisan gain. Now, he said, "it is absolutely crucial that voters who have benefited from Republican leadership in the last 16 years return a solid majority of Republicans to the Texas House in 2020, to remove any potential issues" in the next remap. (<p><span style="font-size: 1em; background-color: transparent;">Austin American-Statesman</span></p> / File 2018)

Next year, to keep the good times rolling, voters should add to the Republicans' 19-11 majority in the Texas Senate and especially the GOP's 83-67 edge in the House, Dickey said. In the House, Democrats last fall picked up a dozen seats and are making noises about possibly seizing the chamber in 2020, he noted.

"It's not a coincidence that since 2003, when Republicans first took control of the House, Texas has for 15 of those 16 years been named the best place in the country to do business," he said.

"Under Republican leadership, Texas continues to have the most uninsured residents in the entire nation, and the highest uninsured rate, because Republicans refuse to do anything to help make health care more affordable and accessible for Texas families," he said. "I don't think that's a great success story."

The Supreme Court may not have banned partisan line drawing, but it remains illegal to pass "racially discriminatory maps, as has happened in Texas many times," he said.

"The Texas House is up for grabs and Democrats are going to be well-positioned to win the seats necessary to claim a majority" next year, said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Chris Turner of Grand Prairie. "It's tough, it's going to be uphill" but is still possible -- and the best way to curb the GOP's redistricting excesses, he said.(Staff / File 2018f)

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Turner, vice chairman of the House Redistricting Committee, called on the Legislature next year to "have a fair redistricting process that respects the voting rights of all Texans [and] respects communities of interest."

Unless Democrats can gain at least nine seats and win control of the Texas House, which is possible though an "uphill" proposition, the odds remain high the state GOP will run roughshod over political and racial minorities, he said.

"Republicans have to date proven unable to conduct a redistricting process that aligns with those basic principles of fairness," Turner said.

Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of Common Cause Texas, called the majority opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts "disappointing."

Trying to block partisan gerrymanders through the federal courts appears futile, he said. Texans and Americans who want to stop politicians from "drawing lines for the districts they're running in" must put heat on state lawmakers, Gutierrez said.

"It's going to require people rising up and making their voices heard and demanding that somebody other than the politicians ... are the ones drawing the maps going forward," he said.

An independent, citizen-led redistricting commission -- which would draw the lines instead of the Legislature -- is the way to go, Gutierrez said.

In the just-ended session, several Democratic-backed bills proposing such a commission died in the House Redistricting Committee, said Turner, who said he supports the idea.

Gutierrez said Democratic gains in the Texas House and Senate in November's midterms may serve as a wake-up call for GOP incumbents.

"They may say, 'Wait, we might be out of power next time,'" and cut their losses by supporting an independent body that would draw fairer lines, he said.

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The GOP's Dickey, though, said independent commissions "don't remove the politics." He said one in California produced "maps that were more politically one-sided, with zero accountability."

If Democrats win a majority of the Texas House next year, the likeliest scenario is that the chamber and the GOP-led Senate would deadlock over maps. For statehouse maps, the job of line drawing would fall to the Legislative Redistricting Board, made up of the House speaker and four statewide elected officials -- all currently Republicans.

"If the Legislature were unable to pass a congressional map, the courts would likely draw it," Turner said.

Washington correspondent Tom Benning and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Robert T. Garrett, Austin Bureau Chief. Bob has covered state government and politics for The Dallas Morning News since 2002.
Earlier, he was a statehouse reporter for three newspapers, including the Dallas Times Herald. A fifth-generation Texan, Bob earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University. He covers Gov. Greg Abbott, the state budget, school textbooks and child welfare.